Memphis, Tennessee, will host the 54th annual National Mastitis Council meeting Feb. 1-3, 2015. Attendees will have the opportunity to see the famous Peabody ducks, as the meeting is being held at Memphis’s popular downtown hotel.
We reached out to several presenters to find out what else attendees can look forward to during the event.
General Session
Dairy Dynamic Management
Presented by Jim Cullor, Dairy Food Safety Laboratory Director, UC – Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
Why is this topic important?
CULLOR: Food safety begins on the farm, and providing a safe, wholesome product for our children is paramount. “Treating your way out of it” will solve almost none of the issues one faces. Prudent use of antibiotics is important and useful, but “managing” your way out of the problem is the best approach.
Dairy Dynamic Management (DDM) is a process that allows you to identify problems before they occur, then design, implement and sustain the changes needed to achieve your goals on a sustainable basis. Training your “human assists” on the farm is the key to success.
What do you hope attendees will take away from this presentation?
CULLOR: It is my hope I can help demonstrate the DDM approach can apply to small-holder farmers as well as large dairy farm operations. I hope to convey on-farm training in a measurable and sustainable manner that will help improve animal health and well-being, public health, ecosystem health, food safety, food defense and the economic well-being of the farm.
General Session
Applying PCR as Part of a Milk Quality Diagnostic Strategy
Presented by Nicole Steele, DairyNZ
Why is this topic important?
STEELE: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a diagnostic tool that can rapidly detect even the smallest quantity of bacteria in milk. Knowing the bacteria causing a mastitis problem can support treatment, management and culling decisions.
The traditional method of bacterial culture, including on-farm systems, is more than adequate in most circumstances, but interest in PCR technology is growing. This is raising many questions on how, why and when to use PCR to identify mastitis pathogens.
What do you hope attendees will take away from this presentation?
STEELE: Prospective users need to know a little about how PCR works, the background to the sample and how to interpret results. This is because PCR and bacterial culture answer different questions.
Culture detects viable bacteria that grow under certain conditions, whereas PCR determines if a target piece of DNA from a specific species of micro-organism is present in the sample. The sample source (quarter, meter, tank, etc.) and method of sample collection influence the test result, so care with interpretation is extremely important.
The talk will summarize the use of PCR at the quarter, cow, group and herd level, share some New Zealand experiences and recommend how best to incorporate PCR in a diagnostic strategy to improve milk quality.
Short Course 3
Update on Mycoplasma and Prototheca Mastitis – Is it Still Emerging or Has it Fully Emerged? An Update on Prevention and Control
Presented by Larry Fox,
Washington State University and Allan Britten, Udder Health Systems
Why is this topic important?
FOX: Over the years, mycoplasma mastitis has been recognized as a contagious pathogen transmitted from cow to cow during milking time, and prototheca mastitis was recognized as a mastitis pathogen that was environmental in nature.
Yet recent investigations have challenged these premises. Additionally these pathogens are becoming more common, with documented and anecdotal reports of more farms reporting more cases of mycoplasma and prototheca mastitis.
What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
FOX: The ultimate end point of the workshop would be to give each attendee the information required to eliminate both mycoplasma and prototheca mastitis from dairy operations. Yet each farm, each dairy situation, is unique – and there is no simple formula for that type of success.
As a first step, it is important attendees have a fuller understanding of the epidemiology and transmission pathways of both the Mycoplasma sp. and Prototheca sp. agents on modern dairies.
Such an understanding will help dairy producers, veterinarians and other field personnel understand how control programs can be developed and what strategies can be employed to achieve the goals of control and elimination of the agents. It is also necessary to have a complete understanding of how improved diagnostic procedures can be used to achieve these goals.
Short Course 10
Failure of Mastitis Therapy: Is it the Drugs, Bugs or Us?
Presented by John Middleton, University of Missouri and Ron Erskine,
Michigan State University
Why is this topic important?
ERSKINE: Drug therapy – and in particular antibiotic therapy – in dairy cattle affects food safety, cow health and well-being, and the dairy producer’s bottom line.
Mastitis remains the single biggest cause of antibiotic therapy in adult dairy cattle, but treating mastitis can be problematic if considerations regarding the pharmacology, the bacteria and the interaction between the “drugs and the bugs” are disregarded.
Thus, it is important to review the reasons why antibiotic therapy fails so as to avoid repeating the same therapeutic mistakes and improve therapeutic decision-making.
What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation?
ERSKINE: We hope attendees will better understand the potential pitfalls of antibiotic treatment of mastitis that lead to public health concerns, poor therapeutic efficacy and unwarranted drug use that wastes time, money and labor. PD
Learn more about the 2015 NMC annual meeting and register at the website.
Emily Caldwell
Editor
Progressive Dairyman
